His remarks about Iranian Shias were met by a response from
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who pointed to the link between
Wahhabism and Takfiri terrorism and said there indeed existed no similarity
between the Islam practiced by Iranians and that by the Wahhabis.

“Indeed; no resemblance between Islam of Iranians & most
Muslims & bigoted extremism that Wahhabi top cleric & Saudi terror
masters preach,” Zarif tweeted after the remarks by Al Sheikh.

Iranian pilgrims will not be attending this year’s Hajj
pilgrimage over concerns that the Saudi authorities are incompetent to provide
security for the pilgrims.

A crush during the Hajj rituals last year killed about 4,700
pilgrims, including 465 Iranians. The incident was caused by the mismanagement
of Saudi authorities, who had blocked roads and directed two columns of
pilgrims toward one another from opposite directions.

Saudi Arabia has refused to update an early death toll of 770
that it provided for the crush despite surging fatality figures from individual
countries whose nationals had been among the victims of the crush.

Just days before the crush, a massive construction crane had
collapsed into the Grand Mosque in Mecca, killing more than 100 people,
including a number of Iranians, and leaving over 200 others wounded.***